Dir.
Peter Webber, 2007, UK/Czech Republic/France/Italy, 120 mins
Cast: Gaspard Ulliel, Rhys Ifans, Dominic West and Gong
Li
Review by Ivan Waterman
Just how did Hannibal Lecter become the Chianti sipping,
flesh-munching monster we took to our hearts via Anthony
Hopkins and Jodie Foster some 16 years ago in Silence of
the Lambs?
There must be millions out there left wondering about our
Hanni and his bizarre gastronomic habits as they've closed
their eyes at night. Are cannibals born or do people bring
out the worst in them?
Come to that, the chap must have had a mum and dad and
a family home. This is what author Thomas Harris, and in
this instance director Peter Webber, set out to explore
in his fifth, fairly unpleasant, red mist of an adventure.
Well numero five of the story might have been made because
many have forgotten or never got to see Michael Mann's
original Manhunter way back in 1986 with the excellent
Brian Cox playing the academic Lecter who is one ward short
of a hospital.
Harris and British new boy on the block Webber – still
feted for his artistic debut period piece Girl With a Pearl
Earring starring Scarlett Johannsen and Colin Firth – have
collaborated to turn time back to Eastern Europe as retreating
and triumphant armies took turns to rape and pillage the
land.
In the middle of the sickening carnage is cherubic Hannibal
and his tiny, sweet sister Mischa who are left to survive
alone in sub-zero temperatures after their parents are
cut to ribbons by Nazi bombs and bullets and they cower
in the background.
Before you can scream psychopath step forward local sadist
Grutas, played by Rhys Ifans, and his band of extremely
unmerry men, who are on the run from just about everybody.
The repellent Grutas is a sublime piece of work from the
hugely talented Ifans, who first signaled his 'arrival'
through Notting Hill. Here, he is marvelously over the
top again with one eye firmly focused on creating the nastiest
screen villain in history and the other on playing panto
in Darlington.
When Grute and his lads get peckish in their hideaway cottage
in the white wilderness, they decide to either grill or
boil loveable little Mischa, with, so it later transpires
Hannibal being forced to devour parts of her anatomy.
It's a wonder that Hanni, now in the form of young handsome
French actor Gaspard Ulliel, survives to endure more hardship
in what was his family home and is now a Communist orphanage.
He is, of course, quite deranged, dangerous and hell bent
on revenge.
Poor Hanni finally escapes across Europe to France where
he locates his beautiful aunt Lady Murasaki – presumably
from the Japanese side of the family – who inspires
him through the Samurai arts to be lethal with a blade.
And so, off we go on our and his voyage of discovery. He
whips off the fascist local butcher's head when his gorgeous
aunt is insulted in the local market and embarks on a blood-curdling
revenge mission when he stumbles on one of Grutas's henchmen
in the town's café.
Not surprisingly, the local Maigret-like cop played by
Dominic West, is hardly amused by the trail of ghastly
murders on his doorstep. Though he is clearly sympathetic
towards Hanni due to his unhappy past, he warns him that
he'll give him a taste of the guillotine unless he desists.
But Lady Murasaki (with the emphasis on the 'Saki' you'll
need after the movie ) can do nothing with the boy, apart
from incest, which appears briefly on the menu. On the
plus side she is very correctly and elegantly played by
Gong Li, one of China's brightest stars who shone in Memoirs
of a Geisha.
Webber's movie, however, spirals out of control into the
genre of being just another messy thriller as Hanni finds
a range of sickening ways to dispatch the villains until
the final obvious confrontation with Grutas in which Ifans
excels.
There's a nice farewell touch as the anti-hero of the piece
jets across to Canada to seek out the final member of the
Lithuanian death squad before, presumably, he morphs into
killing machine Dr Lecter who slaughters, eats and drinks.
Sadly, Webber's stab at Harris's latest and last Lecter
novel novel is half-baked (apology for the pun) and not
wholehearted enough (even more for that one) to rise above
being average. Jonathan Demme's Silence of the Lambs remains
a cut above (and a final apology for that one) the rest
of the series though Ridley Scott's sequel Hannibal had
a good few moments.
But the young and talented French actor Gaspard Ulliel
will at least be able to take his place in movie history.
He looks like the new Alain Delon. Unlike Hannibal, we'll
be seeing a lot more of him.
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